While doing some research today, I stumbled across this wonderful non-profit organization, Lance’s Brewery Tour. I am so impressed with the supporters and community that surrounds this organization and the message they are sending, #BeerAutismHope. After four years of working in partnership with the Autism Society of North Carolina, this makes me so happy to see how many people are rallying support for Autism Awareness.

If it took nearly forty years for your dream to come true, would you give up? Now in his mid-fifties, Lance Rice is a gifted beer historian with a photographic memory. For nearly forty years Lance has used his computer-like mind to memorize a staggering amount of knowledge in beer and brewery history. Yet even more astonishing is the fact that Lance has never been able to share his passion with the world… Lance has autism.

The #BeerAutismHope movement began one year ago this month when Lance Rice, a 56 year-old beer historian with a photographic memory and autism, left home on his own for the first time to fulfill his dream, inspire the world and give back to the autism community. Lance’s journey is a miracle that continues to astonish and inspire the autism world and beyond and his message is simple: never lose hope!

Since the #BeerAutismHope journey began Lance has traveled 25,000 miles, met the most influential people in American brewing, spoke at autism schools and centers for the disabled, talked to families touched by autism and taken countless TV, radio and news interviews across the country – and all this from a man who was once afraid to speak or leave his own home.